The last time Phil Lesh visited Asbury Park, he was in the audience — and his son was in the spotlight.

Lesh, founding bassist of the legendary California jam band the Grateful Dead, was spotted in the crowd when his son Grahame’s band Midnight North played the rooftop of the Asbury Festhalle and Biergarten in 2016.

“The band’s feeling good and we’re really excited to get going,” Grahame Lesh said on Friday. “Both of my parents came to a Midnight North show in Asbury like a year ago, a year and a half almost, at the Asbury Festhalle and Biergarten and yeah, it was a really fun time. I think they had a really good time just sort of being part of the scene for a little bit and watching a show. So all of us in the band, including my dad, are pretty excited for this show for sure.”

Grahame (center) and Phil Lesh (right) play together in the Terrapin Family Band.(Photo: Courtesy of Erik Kabik)

Phil Lesh last performed in Asbury Park in 2009 as a member of Furthur, and the Terrapin Family Band has been making waves in recent years with lively, lived-in performances of material strongly associated with the Grateful Dead family legacy.

In addition to Bluhm’s vocals and Randolph’s righteous pedal steel guitar, Thursday’s show also will feature support from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band out of New Orleans.

“Picture what those folks can do musically added to Grateful Dead music and I think you get a pretty good idea (of what to expect),” Grahame Lesh said. “Our Terrapin Family Band sound, we’re definitely not trying to re-create the exact sound of the Grateful Dead at any one time. We’re just trying to play the songs as best we can and make them sound like our own.

“But we’re lucky when we get to have these amazing folks come jam with us like Robert, like Nicki and like the horn section. It adds a whole different flavor, and they are obviously the best of the best at what they do, so it’s going to be a pretty cool blend.”

Check out photos from Robert Randolph's April appearance at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park:

Following Thursday night’s Asbury Park engagement, Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band perform Friday, Oct. 27, at BB&T Pavilion in Camden as well as Monday, Oct. 30, at Brooklyn Bowl in Brooklyn and Tuesday, Oct. 31, at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.

“What I’ve learned more just comes out in what we play and what I play when I’m not playing with him,” Lesh said. “In Midnight North or whatever, I’ll find myself doing things and thinking about the music in just a different kind of a way than I would have maybe if I hadn’t learned all of these things.

“I don’t know if it’s anything specific, but it’s just a way of approaching music and keeping your mind open and letting the band take you where it should, where the music thinks it should. The individual lessons come five times a show. It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re doing this now. I didn’t know we could do this.’ Things like that. So it’s just a constant process.”